Feds charge 44 with corruption including two N.J. assemblymen, three mayors

ROBERT SCIARRINO/THE STAR-LEDGER/Peter Cammarano, mayor of Hoboken, is one of many people brought to FBI headquarters in Newark on corruption charges after an being taken into custody early this morning.

NEWARK -- Federal authorities arrested 44 people in New Jersey and New York today in a broad-ranging corruption and international money laundering investigation that led to charges against two N.J. assemblyman and the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield.

The wide-ranging investigation also charged Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, of Brooklyn, with "conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of $160,000 to the transplant recipient," according to federal authorities. The connection of they kidney sale to the other aspects of the investigation, however, has not been made clear.

Rosenbaum began meeting with the FBI informant and a female undercover agent in 2008. The pair-- who were posing as a businessman and his secretary-- told Rosenbaum they were willing to pay to find a donor for the woman's fictitious critically ill uncle.

Rosenbaum said he had 10 years experience brokering deals between U.S. patients and people in Israel willing to donate body parts, according to the complaint.

"I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint.

Rosenbaum allegedly said he would need half the money up front and the other half after the donor was flown in from Israel. He also warned the pair that buying and selling human organs is against the law.

"Let me explain to you one thing. It's illegal to buy or sell organs," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint. "So you cannot buy it. What you do is, you're giving a compensation for the time."

-- Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected mayor of Hoboken and an attorney, charged with
accepting $25,000 in cash bribes, including $10,000 last Thursday, from an undercover
cooperating witness.

-- L. Harvey Smith, a New Jersey Assemblyman and recent mayoral candidate in Jersey
City, charged along with an aide of taking $15,000 in bribes to help get approvals from
high-level state agency officials for building projects.

-- Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield and an attorney, charged with agreeing to accept a
$10,000 corrupt cash payment for his legal defense fund.

-- Louis Manzo, the recent unsuccessful challenger in the Jersey City mayoral election and
former state Assemblyman, and his brother and political advisor Robert Manzo, both with
taking $27,500 in corrupt cash payments for use in Louis Manzo's campaign.

-- Leona Beldini, the Jersey City deputy mayor and a campaign treasurer, charged with
taking $20,000 in conduit campaign contributions and other self-dealing in her official
capacity.

-- Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, N.J.,
charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.

-- Saul Kassin, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the chief rabbi of a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York,
charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.

-- Edmund Nahum, of Deal, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, charged with
money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.